My Life As A Blog Guest Post By . . .

Blogger: Victoria Hudgins

Blog: a subtle revelry

Twitter: asubtlerevelry

If my love for online “new” media were a roller coaster, the curve up would leave passengers fearing for their lives! I found out about and started my first blog when I came home from working full-time to be with my twin babies. In those crazy hours of nap schedules I was far too exhausted to be a productive member of society, so I began delving into the classic blogs that inspire us all. As the newborn x2 fog began to lift, I slowly started crafting and designing again, two passions that have always been a part of my life. I was completely surprised at how encouraging the online community was to me and happy to have found a creative hobby outlet in the midst of a twenty four hour diaper changing schedule.

I quickly fell head over heels in love with working on my blog. I began daily crafting, styling and dreaming up creative projects during my 2am feeding. I loved what I was doing and began submitting my work to bigger sites right away! It was not great, (at first it was actually pretty bad!) but the relationships I made during that time were ground breaking for me. I learned quickly in this field . . . the crazy-insane-just-jump-on-the-roller-coaster drive is what makes it work; it’s what makes things happen! So I ran with it. My work improved, I met great photographers and had a few amazing friends give me lifts along the way.

A few hints on building successful relationships in the blogging community (think of your friendships like the train tracks your site will run on).

1) Get involved locally. By stepping out and collaborating with local artists, photographers and other bloggers, my design work quickly hit a new level that would have otherwise taken me years to achieve. My local community inspired me and encouraged my blog growth in a very real way.

2) Make friends with like minded sites. Send encouraging emails, link to their stuff and send in submissions when possible that are of great quality. Offer to help in ways that could really fill a need for their site. Making friends and helping out others will come back to you exponentially. I promise!

3) Collaborate on something big! When I launched Styled. magazine last year it was a huge collaboration with some of my favorite friends online. It was a crazy venture, it was a lot to manage, but it worked! It wasn’t perfect, in fact even now that I run the magazine monthly it is still changing, growing and getting better with each issue. The important thing is, I launched it, and in our world doing something well (even if it isn’t perfect) is worth gold. Think of something huge, get others involved in your project and just do it!